Electronic memory comes in a variety of forms to serve a variety of purposes. Nonvolatile flash memory devices, such as electrically erasable and programmable read only memories (EEPROMs), are used in a wide assortment of applications, including computers, integrated circuit (IC) cards, digital cameras, camcorders, communication terminals, communication equipment, medical equipment, and automobile control systems. In these roles, flash memory is used more as a hard drive than as Random Access Memory (RAM). Nonvolatile flash memory is considered a solid state storage device. Solid state devices do not have moving parts—everything is electronic instead of mechanical.
A few examples of nonvolatile memory include a computer's Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) chip, CompactFlash, SmartMedia, Memory Stick (all three of which are often found in digital cameras), PCMCIA Type I and Type II memory cards (used as solid-state disks in laptops), and memory cards for video game consoles. Other removable nonvolatile memory products include Sony's Memory Stick, PCMCIA memory cards, and memory cards for video game systems.
Nonvolatile memory possesses several inherent advantages. Nonvolatile memory is noiseless, it allows faster access to stored data than media involving moving mechanical apparatuses such as a disk drive, it is typically smaller than most hard drives, it is lighter on a storage capacity per ounce basis, and it has no moving parts. Nonvolatile memory is, however, expensive as compared to more traditional forms of storage media, such as a hard disk drive or compact disk. For that and other reasons, nonvolatile memory has not been used to distribute digital content.
Today, digital content is distributed through a variety of means. Typically, a disk containing the digital content is read by a device or installed on a computer's hard drive, or similar storage media, through a variety of procedures. Digital content is also distributed across networks via downloading. There are significant problems associated with these systems. Since the software needs to be installed, untrained third parties are responsible for actually delivering digital content products to the end consumer. Additionally, the end consumer may have little experience or understanding in the underlying processes that are performed during installation. The installation media and digital content are also subject to corruption before, during, and after the installation process. As a result, digital content such as software is repeatedly re-installed during its useful lifetime, reducing its productivity and efficiency. Lastly, installing digital content under this process is not secure.
Despite the security systems that a digital content provider may impose on a customer to unlock or decode digital content during its installation, all decoding schemes that process information through the computer's central processing unit are vulnerable to hacking. Fundamentally, the digital content is communicated across the computer's system bus, which is vulnerable to intrusion. The Internet, along with inexpensive CD duplicating hardware, has made it possible for anyone to pirate thousands of dollars worth of digital content in a matter of minutes. This is complicated by the fact that the fidelity of pirated digital content from an illicit source is identical to that of the original version. Revenue lost to piracy of digital content is staggering and continues to grow. Thus, there is a continuing need to protect digital content reliably. This need continues to drive security schemes to exceedingly high levels of sophistication.
As schemes to protect digital content become more convoluted, end users are forced to deal with an ever broadening array of technical issues. This scenario is further exasperated by the realization that installed digital content is increasingly prone to corruption. Subsequent installations of other digital content may replace or alter fundamental portions of a previous installation, leaving software or similar digital content useless. Hard drives are subject to physical wear and tear, and the magnetic fields that hold data may degrade. As end consumers become less aware of the underlying structure and installation process, they rely more and more on expert advice. As a result, support requirements and customer service costs have skyrocketed.
There remains a need to distribute digital content securely in a cost effective and reliable manner. The present invention addresses these and other problems, as well as provides additional benefits.